State champion rises above the field and the rain

Brian Humphreys beat the rain yesterday. Today, he didn’t let it beat him.

The Camas High School freshman shot the best round of 74 strokes on a soggy and windy Wendesday at Camas Meadows to become the 4A boys golf state champion.

“This feels incredible,” Humphreys said. “My goal was just to finish in the top three. To be able to win it all under these conditions, after all the hard work I put into this makes it that much sweeter.”

Humphreys shot 2-under par Tuesday to tie with four other golfers for the lead. Little did he know, it would be the last anybody would see the sun during the tournament.

“I had a good first round yesterday before it started raining,” Humphreys said. “Today, there were no excuses. I had to play in the rain just like everybody else.”

The Papermaker nailed birdies on the second and seventh holes Wednesday. He made the turn with a five-stroke lead, before getting a bogey on 10 and 11. Humphreys settled down and pared the rest of the holes.

Eastlake’s Li Wang pressured Humphreys with a birdie on the 17th hole, but Humphreys made his par putt to maintain a two-stroke lead. He hit his approach shot on 18 over the water fountain on the left and a sand trap on the right, and dropped his ball about 8 feet from the hole.

“It was a big relief to get that ball on the green,” Humphreys said. “If it would have gone in the water, it would have been a nightmare. That was the last hill I needed to climb.”

Humphreys and Braeden Campbell pushed the Papermakers up to fourth place in the state’s team standings.

“I’ve never seen kids work as hard as these two,” said head coach Ed Givens. “They ended up getting a fourth-place trophy. That’s a pretty good piece of work by two individuals. I cannot tell you how good this feels.”

Campbell and Humphreys have been on the golf course together, rain or shine, since February. And it all paid off for them Wednesday.

“To get a team trophy and a state champion was worth it,” Campbell said.